Operation and invention: a balance between two extremes

To navigate with agility and direction amidst the uncertainty we need to focus on operational efficiency and, at the same time, commit to innovation. Altair Rossato, Deloitte Brazil's CEO

The current crisis is possibly the worst in the history of capitalism – and the most peculiar one. Firstly, its starting point is a real threat to billions of lives: a pandemic. As a humanitarian hazard, it has forced people from all over the world into social isolation, in an unthinkable number. It has thereby interrupted the face-to-face contact that, since the Persian bazaars and the Greek Agora, was the basis for the logic of doing business. Two millennia later, the digital revolution sustained a good part of this environment: claiming its place once and for all, even in the way we do work. But that revolution alone will not be able to defuse the economic crisis. How does one manage a company during these times? The exercises of predictability, adaptation of operations, focus on cash flow and protection of professionals hold the answer.

There are many methods of operating. It is also crucial to adopt new ways of thinking. The disruptions that transformed the market are now grouped into a critical reality, which requires another stance, starting with CEOs. It is necessary to practice a leadership that focus simultaneously on the short and long terms, acting on the current situation and the disruptive transformation that will be established in the future – this is the concept of “ambidexterity” described in an article of this edition of Mundo Corporativo, from our partnership with the Deloitte Insights portal.

To navigate with agility and direction amidst the turbulence, on must focus on operational efficiency all the while committing to innovation. But how do we to combine these two? On the one hand, there is the cold clarity of numbers. On the other, the vague and chaotic creative tension that drives progress. The undisruptable CEO will accept this contradiction and, with ambidexterity, will activate and balance these two extremes. Not only that, they will capture this change in behavior, map it with their professionals and establish it in the company culture.

It is urgent. Accordingly, Mundo Corporativo  discusses these issues – in line with Deloitte’s role to promote the transformation of markets, through knowledge as well. Our main article addresses how several companies have overcome the challenges of the current crisis. Ambidexterity and its decisive role in the posture of CEOs is covered in the comprehensive article I mentioned earlier. We have also illustrated this unique moment for the technology, media and telecommunications sectors – and the results of the survey “Responses to the Covid-19 Crisis”, an enlightening study.

Enjoy!

Altair Rossato
Deloitte’s CEO